Religion

Self-proclaimed "prophet" Rick Joyner recently warned folks on his "Prophetic Perspective on Current Events" Morningstar Ministries broadcast that they needed to stock up on food, water and water filters.

The doomsday warning was apparently about a global pandemic that is supposed to hit sometime in the near future, noted RightWingWatch.org (video below).

"I strongly recommend that you really get a good supply of food, water, water purification," said Joyner. "You know, we've got filters that can filter out just about everything at Morningstar [Ministries], Jim Bakker distributes them, you can get them at many different sources."

"Some of these filters, you can't believe it, they filter out everything," claimed Joyner. "And I was talking to people yesterday [whose] own pH level has been reduced dramatically just by drinking everything through these filters. You walk around Morningstar [Ministries], most of these people are drinking out of these filters and their pH level is being reduced."

"When your pH level gets down to a certain level cancer won't grow," stated Joyner. "You don't even have to worry about it. Yes, that is true."

Actually, it's not true, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. In fact, even small changes to the body's pH may indicate a life-threatening situation.

The American Institute for Cancer Research stated in May 2008 on its website:

The unsubstantiated theory is based on lab studies that suggest cancer cells thrive in an acidic (low pH) environment, but cannot survive in alkaline (high pH) surroundings. While these findings are accurate, they apply only to cells in an isolated lab setting. Altering the cell environment of the human body to create a less-acidic, less-cancer-friendly environment is virtually impossible.

While proponents of this myth argue that avoiding certain foods and eating others can change the body’s pH level, these claims stand in stark contrast to everything we know about the chemistry of the human body. Acid-base balance is tightly regulated by several mechanisms, among them kidney and respiratory functions.

Even slight changes to your body’s pH are life-threatening events. Patients with kidney disease and pulmonary dysfunction, for example, often rely on dialysis machines and mechanical ventilators (respectively) to avoid even small disruption of acid-base balance.

...claiming that restricting certain foods and eating others will make your pH “alkaline enough” to prevent cancer is more fiction than fact.

"There is no scientific evidence that this is true,” Dr. Kyle Holen, an oncologist, told the University of Wisconsin Health website. “This belief is very similar to the myth about altering your body's blood sugar level. It's difficult to change your blood pH by eating alkaline foods like green vegetables, strawberries, apples or pumpkin. Like blood sugar, the body's pH is tightly regulated. The bottom line is changing pH is not a rational way of treating cancer because it's almost impossible to alter blood pH."